Effi Briest

Effi Briest

The forced marriage

Prussia, in the 19th century: Carefree and lively, 17-year-old Effi Briest (Julia Jentsch) dances through her life. But that changes abruptly, as Effi at the request of her parents to marry Baron Geert von Innstetten (Sebastian Koch), who is almost 20 years older, who was also a former admirer of her mother (Juliane Köhler). From reason and to the peace of all, agrees the brave daughter Effi in the arranged marriage and moves with her husband to Kessin to further his political career.

Passion and adultery

Geert (Sebastian Koch) and Effi (Julia Jentsch) after their wedding

But in the quiet town on the Baltic Sea begins a life for Effi that leaves her desperate. The baron is rarely present, she has hardly any friends, strange ghost stories rob her of sleep. When the smart Major Crampas (Misel Maticevic) enters her life, she blossoms. The two start a stormy affair full of passion - even though they know theirs secret love has no chance.

A way out of the hopeless love for Crampas approaching when Effis man finally settles the professional success and pull her to Berlin. Six years later, when the sickly Effi comes back from a cure and visits her parents, The old love letters of Crampas come by chance into the hands of the baron. Humiliated, he challenges his wife's former lover to a duel in which Crampas dies. Effi's marriage breaks, she loses her daughter Annie, and her parents break her as well.

Effi survives and becomes a confident woman

In Theodor Fontane's classic Effi despairs her destiny and dies with loneliness. The director Hermine Huntgeburth tries in her remake, the love and adultery drama to translate into the modern day. So Effi survives and evolves into one self-confident woman who starts a new, independent life.

But this sudden development to a self-confident woman, who can lead a life without a husband in society, actually comes too suddenly and acts intentionally. Inevitably, the question arises why Effi has not fought against her fate much earlier.

The template for the new end offered Elisabeth von Ardenne

Effi Briest (Julia Jentsch)

The model for this new end provided the true life of Elisabeth von Ardenne, who also served Theodor Fontane as a model for his Effi Briest. She continued to live alone after adultery and died in 1952 at the age of 99.

Overall, Effi Briest is a quiet movie with solid acting performances. Unhurried and a bit slow which even the provocative nude scenes can not change. And whether a fifth filming of the literary classics, also with a new end, was really necessary, is probably a matter of taste. Perhaps you are still better served with the book by Theodor Fontane and prefer to play the dramatic story of Effi Briest in your own head.

Effi Briest to go (Fontane in 11 Minuten) (April 2024).